1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of remote information handling system administration and more specifically, to the remote installation of software code.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The volume of data that information handling systems manage continues to grow, driving the need for scalable systems that not only sustain information integrity and availability, but also make efficient use of computing resources. One popular approach to addressing this need is the use of large, interconnected servers comprising multiple processors. Another popular approach is blade server systems, which generally comprise a number of individual computer blades housed within a chassis that provides a common power supply, cooling, and management resources. Each computer blade typically includes one or more processors, computer memory, network connections, and computer storage. An advantage to this approach is that users, applications and/or processes can be assigned to specific computer blades and/or spread across available resources. As additional processing power or capacity is needed, additional computer blades are added to the blade server.
Regardless of the chosen approach, administering servers from a remote location is often mandatory in today's business environment. Management access controllers (MACs) like the Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) provide the ability to install and manage software on remote servers. One aspect of these MACs is they allow the remote installation of operating system (OS) and other software through a feature known as virtual media. Virtual media allows administrators to remotely connect a mass storage device to a server and use the device as if it were physically present on the server. Virtual media generally uses hardware to emulate universal serial bus (USB) mass storage devices with native USB interfaces, thereby avoiding the need for additional device drivers. After the virtual media device is connected through the managed server's USB bus, the server's OS treats it as if the administrator had physically attached a USB hard disk, floppy disk, or compact disk to the remote server. Once a virtual media device is connected to the server, administrators can remotely boot the device through a remote management console application. Once the remote management console is launched and the managed server powered-up and booted, the system management experience is the same as if the administrator were physically present at the remote server.
Virtual media can be similarly used to emulate the managed server's MAC as a local, USB-connected storage device. During software installations, the managed server will attempt to read data from the MAC just as if it were a local storage device. In actuality, a read request generated by the managed server is typically routed through a host USB bus port to a USB bus port on the MAC where it is received by the MAC's USB hardware. The management application running in the MAC formats the request into Ethernet packets, which are forwarded through the MAC to management firmware residing in the LAN On Motherboard (LOM) module. The LOM then forwards the packets to the remote management client over an external network connection. Responses are received over the network connection from the remote management client and the process is repeated in reverse until the remote server receives the response. As another example, since the MAC is emulated as a local USB device, the OS is required to load modules for USB devices. Because of this, software installations (e.g., OS installation) take more time with virtual media implementations than with existing installation methods such as pre-boot execution environment (PXE) and network file system (NFS) that are implemented over a network connection. In part, this is due to multiple MACs in a blade system sharing a single network connection. Simultaneous remote installations can create excessive amounts of network traffic, leading to congestion on the shared network connection. While providing an effective remote administration solution, this approach adds undesirable latency and increases installation time due to the multiple hardware and software steps involved. As a result, longer installation times can be experienced as well as possible connection timeouts, which can become more pronounced over time as processing loads increase.